UK’s first battery-powered hotel

The Gyle at Edinburgh Park, Premier Inn, has become the UK’s first battery-powered hotel as part of our Force for Good commitment to reduce our impact on the environment. We hope that the battery-power trial will improve energy efficiency, secure power supply and enable energy cost savings on-site.

The innovative battery, which is 3m3 in size and weighs approximately five tonnes, functions by drawing power from the National Grid during off-peak periods. It has capacity to run whole hotel – including powering meals cooked at the Thyme bar and grill – for up to three hours!

The Gyle Premier Inn at Edinburgh Park was chosen as the first site to trial the battery in part because Scotland is a large producer of renewable power, such as wind power, which can be prone to volatility. At such times, the battery will help the National Grid by reducing demand from the system.

As well as powering the Edinburgh-based hotel, the trial of the new battery storage system allows the Premier Inn site to avoid increased peak-time energy costs and generate revenue by offering energy support services to the National Grid - in essence, by being paid in exchange for taking power off the grid.

The installation is expected to save the hotel £20,000 per year in energy savings alone.

At Premier Inn we are already the industry’s widest adopter of solar panels*, and the trial of the battery storage technology at one of our Premier Inns marks just another another step towards our commitment to cut carbon emissions in half by 2025.

Cian Hatton, Whitbread’s Head of Energy and Environment, comments: “Batteries are of course everyday items, more commonly associated with powering small household goods, like the TV remote control, so it’s incredibly excited to launch the UK’s first battery-powered hotel – an innovation which will save money, ensure security of supply and support the transition to a more flexible grid”.

*Premier Inn has more sites with solar panels than any other hotel chain in the UK, 169 in total.